Boris Bandov 1977, 1978; 1978 (id)

Boris Bandov was born November 23rd, 1953 in Livno, Yugoslavia. He attended Silver Creek High School in San Jose, California, where he played on the school's boys soccer team. In 1972, he led the team to California's Central Coast Section high school championship game, which the team lost to Archbishop Mitty High School. After graduating from high school, he briefly attended San Jose State, playing on the school’s football team as a kicker. His longest was a 52 yard field goal in a game against Cal.

Boris began his professional U.S. soccer career with the San Jose Earthquakes on May 5th, 1974. He played two seasons with the Earthquakes as a forward/midfield winger before moving to the Seattle Sounders after the 1975 season. He spent most of 1976 on the Sounders reserve team, only making the first team after midfield winger Jimmy Robertson suffered a broken leg from a brutal tackle from Julio Navarro in a July 24th, 1976 game against the Philadelphia Atoms. He became a U.S. citizen in 1976.

Boris played 5 games with the Sounders at the start of the 1977 season before moving to the Rowdies for the remainder of the season. He only appeared in 8 outdoor games during his spell with Rowdies, but did appear in 5 games during the 1978 indoor season.

In 1979 Boris moved to the New York Cosmos. He played with them through the end of the 1982 season, including the two NASL championship teams of 1980 and 1982 as well as the 1981 NASL championship loss to the Chicago Sting.

In April 1983, Team America announced it had signed him from the Cosmos on a game by game basis. He played 21 games with the team during its single season in existence. When Team America finished the 1983 season with a 10-20 record, the worst in the NASL, USSF withdrew the team from the league.

When he became a U.S. citizen, he was almost immediately called into the national team for its first game of the year, a September 24th 1978 FIFA World Cup qualifying game with Canada. He began his national team career with a bang, scoring the tying goal. Boris went on to start every national team game in 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979. In 1980, his appearances began to taper off, but he still played the only U.S. games in 1982 and 1983. The 1983 game, a 2-0 win over Haiti was his last with the team. Despite playing a total of 33 games with the team, he scored only once again after his first game, in a meaningless 3-1 win over Bermuda in October 1979.
Boris returned to the Cosmos, but was released on November 16th, 1983 when he refused to agree to a 20% pay cut. With the collapse of the NASL, he moved to the Fort Lauderdale Sun of the United Soccer League.

He retired in 1986 and today lives in Dobbs Ferry with his wife Karen, a former Miss Oregon and two sons, Tomislav and Stjepan Bandov. He coaches for the FC Westchester U-18 boys and at various soccer camps and clinics.